If you're moving soon, or have just stumbled across a discarded necklace on the floor of an abandoned manor, you may want to steer clear of watching the latest short horror film from Michael Chaves.

Titled The Maiden, the narrative of this nine-minute short is a haunted house story with an eerily realistic angle. The story follows an estate agent whose wits are severely tested when assigned to take care of an abandoned mansion that isn't nearly as deserted as it seems. Well shot and well performed, it's now being developed into a feature length.

In an exclusive interview with Bloody Disgusting, director Chaves talked about how the idea for the short came into view:

“I was fascinated by the crash and how corrupt everything about it was,” he explained. “I’ve always loved haunted house stories, but I wanted some kind of a twist. I started wondering ‘what happens before the young family moves in? As a real estate agent, how could you sell something like that?’”

“Hopefully the short looks big, but in reality it was a really small, family run production.” Chaves enlisted his high school best friend Tristan Nyby to shoot it. Michael’s wife, Dina Buglione, did the casting. His next door neighbor David Moore and Lynda Pribyl produced. Chaves said: “My mom was even going to do craft service but she couldn’t get off work.”

The Maiden's photography director, Tristan Nyby added:

“We wanted to anchor it in reality, so we shot primarily with natural light. Especially for a thriller/horror, the power is in believing this is real. The house had such an amazing structure that it shaped the light really beautifully.”